Cero
by Kelster Lynn
Summary: Tatsuki fights and converses with her inner self in her world. This takes place after Tatsuki confronts Ichigo and during the time that Orihime is in Hueco Mundo along with her rescuers. One-Shot that I did while I was at home and had nothing to do.


"Cero…" the dragon said, as it fired one off at Tatsuki.

The cero barely missed as she dodged over to the right.

Or would that be down? It was hard to tell due to everything being sideways.

"Wow, that one almost got you," it said as it slowly moved closer to her.

She raised up her sword once again. "But you're running out of energy quickly. If you don't attack me—" it disappeared.

"—_then you're going to die."_ She whirled around. The dragon had shown up behind her.

As it brought up its huge tail to smash her, she brought up her sword to defend herself.

But her skills weren't very developed, and she was flung up into the air, bleeding small drops of blood.

"Ugh…" Tatsuki knelt, using her sword to hold her up.

"It's only been three days, yet you're tired?" The dragon asked as it walked towards her. "Your stamina is terrible. You wouldn't last three seconds in an open battle."

She snapped, "SHUT UP! I'VE HAD TO LISTEN TO YOUR DAMN INSULTS AND DEFEND AGAINST YOUR ATTACKS FOR NEARLY 72 HOURS! I NEED TO REST!"

"Hmm, if you have the energy to yell, then you definitely have the energy to fight."

"I'm only human…" she mumbled in response.

"That is true..." it was now only three feet away from her. _When had that happened?_ she thought. "You ARE only human."

"A weak, sad, little human."

Tatsuki took the insults. It had been three days of this after all. It wasn't any different. Except that whenever she had been insulted, she had attacked the dragon in a fit of rage.

The dragon stood in silence for a moment. "You're not angry." It was a statement. Not a question.

"I don't know… It's hard to tell now. I haven't been this tired since…" Tatsuki wavered and ended her response.

"Yes. Since THAT time," It knew exactly what she was talking about.

"So where is your anger now? Where did all the energy go?" It inquired.

She was silent.

It knelt to her ear and spoke again.

"Why are you angry?"

Tatsuki remained silent.

"WHO are you angry at?"

Then, she mumbled something.

"What was that?" it asked.

She said something a little louder.

"Who was it?" the dragon asked again, pushing her mental capacities.

"ICHIGO!" she finally yelled. "I HATE THAT BASTARD!"

"Why are you angry at him?" it asked again, a small smile crept up its face as it spoke.

" HE HID EVERYTHING FROM ME! I THOUGHT WE HAD BEEN FRIENDS! I THOUGHT WE WERE NAKAMA!" she yelled with her head facing towards the sky.

"But he didn't think that, did he?" it said while taking a few steps back.

She just sat and stared at the sky for a while.

Time passed for what seemed like hours, but were just a few minutes, seconds even.

And then…

…it started to rain.

It was only a small sprinkle, but it quickly turned into a drizzle, then a downpour.

Tatsuki just continued staring at the sky.

"I guess not…"

The dragon continued to stare at Tatsuki. Its expression was one of amusement, and at the same time, one of no emotion.

"Remember that anger," it said as it started to dissipate from the bottom up.

"Drive it into your head and burn it into your skull." Its lower torso was gone.

"For you will need it when you have nothing left. And when you need to survive."

She just sat staring at the sky. But the world was starting to turn so that the buildings and trees faced upward and that the rain hit her face.

"Anger is your most powerful weapon, Tatsuki-chan," the dragon added. "Use it against your enemies…" only the dragon's head remained.

"...And Ichigo."

The dragon had completely disappeared. Its spirit particles floating over to Tatsuki's shadow.

It was quiet. Besides the rain storming down on her.

"What is this, dragon?" she inquired, a sad smile starting to appear. "I thought I had to hit you to win."

It answered only a second after she had asked.

"I wouldn't be in you, if you hadn't won."

Not really an answer to her question, but one she understood.

The smile that had been there before (no matter how insignificant it was,) had faded away into a neutral expression.

So she continued to sit.

And not move.

And not speak.

And then, something happened to her.

A hole appeared slowly over the left side of her chest. It ripped the clothes and the skin as it seemed to go inward, towards her body. But she made no sound as the hole became complete.

Chains then appeared from the complete hole and wrapped themselves around her body. She didn't move an inch during the painful process.

Sitting on the side of a building with rain pelting it, was a figure wrapped in chains, with a noticeable hole to what appeared to be over where its heart should've been.

Tatsuki just sat there, her head pointing to the sky, with the rain drenching her. Not moving, not speaking, and in a state of bliss.

And then, her world exploded.

Disappearing into a sea of loneliness and nothingness.

Along with its creator.

* * *

At that moment in Urahara Kisuke's shop, sat two teenage boys along with the shop's owner and its staff. All patiently waiting for the return of one girl.

Kisuke then, noticing a strange reiatsu turned his head to face the trap door that was in his floor.

"It seems that Ms. Arisawa has returned," he stated.

Mizuiro and Keigo lifted their heads as a black head appeared from the floor.

It was clothed in a black kimono with something slightly noticeable underneath the clothes. And it was wet.

"Arisawa! What happened to you? You're drenched!" Mizuiro asked.

"I was thinking," she replied stoically. She then turned to Urahara.

"Okay, we're done. Now take us to Orihime and Ichigo."

* * *

A/N: Just something I wrote while I was at home alone. By the way, when Tatsuki appears in the Shinigami garb, the chains and the hole is still there, but they're just underneath the clothes.

Also, in case you're wondering about the title, "Cero" and you're not sure why it's called that let me explain: The word "cero" is Spanish for zero. In this story, it's supposed to symbolize Tatsuki's mental sanity or her world. For instance, when her world disappeared. From there it was nothing or "zero".

I hope you enjoyed reading this fic, and for my watchers/viewers, I'm sorry that I haven't been updating my _Hyuga Hinata-- Bijuu_ fanfic. I've been busy with school. But since it's finally summer, I'll try to update its chapters more frequently.

And a last note... On the part where it says "her world exploded", I wanted to give a better word but I couldn't think of anything. "Faded" wasn't quite right, and "Imploded" was wrong, so I just stuck with "exploded". If I think of something better, I'll change it.

Update/Edit (whatever...):

Due to a commentor, (Grimmhausen) I have taken their advice and worked on changing most of the "Tatsuki"'s to "she"'s or "her"'s and some of "the dragon"'s to "it"'s.

Thanks Grimmhausen.

I might possibly edit or work on this a bit more. For good writing standards and all that jazz.


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